When was Star Trek the most epic?

[Admiral Buzzkill]

"The Doomsday Machine" - not my absolute favorite episode, but the most epic.

 

[Kirkman1987]

Wrath of Khan and Search for Spock were both epic. Both films took big risks and won, thus giving the fans big rewards. The Nebula battle, The destruction of the enterprise and the death of Spock and David, along with others,are some of the key moments of the entire franchise.

DS9 also gets props for it's arc storytelling, which was fantastic and is truly unique in Star Trek.

 

[Praxius]

For the Kirk Crew: Star Trek 6
Picard Crew: Best of Both Worlds • All Good Things • First Contact
Sisko Crew: The Entire Dominion War (excluding the Ferengi and other side-episodes in between)
Janeway Crew: Scorpion • Endgame
Archer Crew: Dunno, still have to get beyond season one.

Season 3 of ENT was as epic as it gets.

Overall, I'd say:

- the Dominion War
- the Xindi arc
- The Best of Both Worlds

Yes, epic stories usually happened when Earth or the entire Quadrant was under threat from a powerful enemy.

Scorpion was VOY's most epic moment (though Year of Hell could have been that if it had been played as originally planned, as a season-long arc, with no time travel or reset button), but I can't see Endgame as epic, it was just one big Deus ex machina with dodgy time travel to get the crew back, and the Borg didn't feel threatening at that point at all. The story doesn't feel like it's really taking place on a grand scale and affecting the entire galaxy, maybe it was meant to be but it failed in that respect.

Well for me, the whole time travel, breaking the rules, Janeway finding her old self and attitude back, sacrificing herself to not just get the crew home, but to add on top of that, destroying the Borg itself through sacrificing herself..... and upgrading the ship with more future technology.... basically imo, Janeway pulled a trick from the Queen's bag of using time travel to her advantage, but unlike the Queen, it worked for her.

For once it wasn't the Borg who were more advanced and daunting, it was Humanity..... sure it might have been cheating, but when you're facing impossible odds:

Go into Console ~
Type "SV_Cheats 1"
Then type "God"

But I do have to say that the ending was a tad on the bland side and when they get back to the AQ, they meet the ships and they fly off..... that's it.... no family reunions, no "Real" fireworks or celebrations..... it just ended much like any other episode with the ship sauntering off and then credits.

Talk about blue ball.

 

[Admiral Shran]

TOS - Journey to Babel
TNG - The Defector or The Best of Both Worlds
DS9 - the whole show (with a few notable exceptions)
VOY - Scorpion
ENT - the Vulcan Trilogy or the Andorian Trilogy

 

[Quinton O'Connor]

I've meditated on the subject in the Alps for twenty years and returned the wiser.

TOS: The movie trilogy; Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country
TNG: "The Best of Both Worlds"; "Tapestry"; "All Good Things"; First Contact
DS9: The whole show, as Shran claims
VOY: "Scorpion"; "Year of Hell"; "Equinox"
ENT: The majority of the third season; all three fourth-season trilogies

"Equinox" gets by a little unfairly for me. See, I haven't watched the show since it went off the air, but to this day I have the main musical theme from that two-parter pop up in my head from time to time. I'm not always Star Trek's biggest musical advocate, but there's something about that beat that just stayed with me as a kid.

 

[DevilEyes]

I've meditated on the subject in the Alps for twenty years and returned the wiser.

TOS: The movie trilogy; Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country
TNG: "The Best of Both Worlds"; "Tapestry"; "All Good Things"; First Contact
DS9: The whole show, as Shran claims
VOY: "Scorpion"; "Year of Hell"; "Equinox"
ENT: The majority of the third season; all three fourth-season trilogies

"Equinox" gets by a little unfairly for me. See, I haven't watched the show since it went off the air, but to this day I have the main musical theme from that two-parter pop up in my head from time to time. I'm not always Star Trek's biggest musical advocate, but there's something about that beat that just stayed with me as a kid.

I would agree most of the list, but really, DS9 is most certainly not epic in its entirety. A lot of it is, and a lot of it isn't. There are lots of DS9 episodes that are little standalone stories, comedy episodes, romance episodes, episodes focusing on just one of the characters and some particular problem they face, etc.. You really can't seriously claim that episodes like Trials and Tribble-ations, Who Mourns for Morn, Melora, Second Sight, You Are Cordially Invited, Crossfire, Progress, Civil Defense, Family Business, A Simple Investigation, Doctor Bashir, I Presume?, Chrysalis, Take Me Out to the Holosuite, Prodigal Daughter, Honor Among Thieves, Fascination, Explorers, Facets, Time's Orphan, Looking for Par'mach in all the Wrong Places, The Ascent, Ferengi Love Songs, In the Cards, His Way, Resurrection, or, for that matter, The Visitor, to name a few, are in any way "epic". They are very diverse in theme, style and quality, but none of them has an epic scope or style.

 

[Admiral Shran]

^ I would include all of those episodes (even utter shit ones like Let He Who Is Without Sin..., Valiant, and Profit and Lace) in there because even they add to the overall epic-ness of the series.

Even the worst episodes inject something into the overall story. Let He Who Is Without Sin... gives us the end of the Bashir-Leeta romance and sets the stage for Leeta-Rom. Valiant offers us an insight into Nog's character, making what happens in The Siege of AR-558 more moving - if they hadn't spent so much time developing Nog, the impact would be less. Profit and Lace.... .... .... .... ok, the whole series except that one episode.

 

[flemm]

I would agree most of the list, but really, DS9 is most certainly not epic in its entirety. A lot of it is, and a lot of it isn't.

I don't think there's any real problem with designating an entire story as epic even though it contains many individual moments that are not epic, such as comic moments or even just outright bad creative choices.

To choose a widely known example (even though I don't much like these films), the LotR movies are widely perceived as epic, and the presence of comic relief (even sometimes awkward comic relief) doesn't in itself make them any less epic. Neither does the fact that a single moment might be annoying or unappealing, because people perceive the overall story as having the grandeur, dramatic weight and scope associated with the epic.

Even the original books (which are pretty much the reference as far as pop culture epics are concerned) mix a variety of tones along the way. That is the whole point of the Hobbits, for example, whose rustic ways contrast with the high fantasy elements (and increase the epicness of those elements by offsetting them).

As far as DS9 is concerned, some of the obviously non-epic elements get swept up in the epic storyline, a bit like the Hobbits. For example, Quark has an "unlikely hero" moment in the Occupation arc. This is a staple of the epic, the point being that the non-epic character steps into the epic storyline, thereby rising to the occasion.

"Humble beginnings" is another staple of the epic, so the very non-epic opening season of DS9 doesn't make the overall story less epic, but moreso in the sense that the characters' journies cover so much ground. At the end of season two, the Captain of the Odyssey wonders aloud if the DS9 crew should be allowed to accompany him to confront the Jem-Hadar, since only Kira and the Chief have combat experience. By season 7, we get the sense that this is one of the most battle-hardened crews in Starfleet: Nog of all people is a grizzled combat veteran by the time WYLB roles around. This is a bit like Merry or Pippin in the LotR.

One could also argue that the sense of scope and scale that is so important to the epic is increased by the variety of different cultures and storytelling styles that the show is able to encompass. Similarly, in an epic like the LotR, it's important, for example, that the Elves, Dwarves, Hobbits and Humans are all caught up in the final struggle, like the Klingons, Romulans, Ferengi, Bajorans, Cardassians, etc. on DS9. Individually, not all the races are epic in tone, but together they add to the sense of scope that makes the story epic. As far as diverse storytelling styles in an epic like the LotR are concerned, Aragorn tells some epic tales around the campfire, but Sam also sings some silly comic songs from the Shire.

There is also the matter of depth. One of the reasons the LotR novels are able to create such a compelling fictional universe is that Tolkien was drawing on existing stories that he had already composed (but not published) before he wrote the Hobbit and the LotR. Middle Earth already existed, it wasn't just invented on the spot to serve as a backstory. TOS and especially TNG perform this function on DS9 and provide a similar sense of depth: the universe is even bigger, older, more vast in scope than what we are being shown in the main storyline, which is already quite expansive. That is another key element of the epic.

So I don't see any issue with calling the whole DS9 saga epic. In fact I think it's pretty epic overall But we can assert that this is true while at the same time noting that of course there is some crap in there and plenty of non-epic individual episodes.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

Not really a single episode, but I found the tension and grit of the DS9 arc from "Call to Arms" through to "Sacrifice of Angels" to be probably the most epic portion of the entire franchise.

This is the correct answer. Nice to see that it was also the first answer. People are really on their toes here!